Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/66

56 Lest the proud enemies new trophies raise, And loudly triumph in our fresh disgrace: No captive Israelite their pompous joy adorn, Nor in sad bondage his lost country mourn: No spoils of ours be in their temples hung, No hymns to Ashdod's idol sung, Nor thankful sacrifice on his glad altars burn. Kind Heaven forbid! lest the base heathen slaves blaspheme Thy sacred and unutterable name, And above thine extol their Dagon's fame; Lest the vile Fish's worship spread abroad, Who fell a prostrate victim once before our conquering God: And you, who the great deeds of kings and kingdoms write, Who all their actions to succeeding age transmit, Conceal the blushing story, ah! conceal Our nation's loss, and our dread monarch's fall: Conceal the journal of this bloody day, When both by the ill play of fate were thrown away: Nor let our wretched infamy, and fortune's crime, Be ever mentioned in the registers of future time. For ever, Gilboa, be cursed thy hated name, The eternal monument of our disgrace and shame! For ever cursed be that unhappy scene, Where slaughter, blood, and death did lately reign! No clouds henceforth above thy barren top appear, But what may make thee mourning wear: Let them ne'er shake their dewy fleeces there, But only once a year On the sad anniverse drop a remembering tear; No flocks of offerings on thy hills be known, Which may, by sacrifice, our guilt and thine atone: Nor sheep, nor any of the gentler kind hereafter stay On thee, but bears and wolves, and beasts of prey, Or men more savage, wild, and fierce than they;